In the field of electrical circuits, particularly those used in residential, municipal and large commercial applications, it is desirable to be able to monitor, locate and measure the grounding faults in a given circuit.
This is especially valuable in complex electrical circuits such as those used in residences, by municipalities, and by commerical concerns. Examples of such complex circuits include street lighting, airfield lighting, power plants, large buildings, etc.
In many of these applications it is desirable, if not necessary that the circuitry remain in service, or at least subjected to as little down time as possible.
As an example, the lighting of modern airfields involves large, widespread and complex electrical circuitry which serves not only to light the airfield, but to monitor the position and progress of aircraft on the runways and taxiways. Examples of such an airfield lighting/control system ("ALCS") are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/059,023 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,243,340; 5,220,321; 4,951,046; 4,481,516; 4,590,471; 4,675,574; 3,943,339; 3,771,120; and 3,715,741 which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. At best, faults in these systems would be detected and resolved immediately without disabling any portion of the circuitry. Presently however, an airfield must be shut down to allow the airfield lighting system to be diagnosed and repaired. Currently, this is done by de-energizing the entire ALCS followed by passing surge currents through the circuits, such as through the use of meggers, in an attempt to detect and locate ground faults. This procedure necessarily involves down-time for the runways and taxiways, bringing airfield traffic to a standstill until the ALCS can be repaired and re-energized.
Down-time at airfields results in the disruption of airline scheduling and a resultant loss of airport and airline revenue.
Therefore, there is a need for a system capable of detecting, locating and measuring ground faults throughout an electrical circuit, such as those described above, particularly while the AC system is operational.
In view of the present disclosure and/or through the practice of the described invention, additional advantages, efficiencies and solutions to problems may become apparent to one skilled in the relevant art.